Originally Posted by
OldnGrounded
"It's not our fault, it was the subcontractor!" Not a very persuasive defense argument.
Perhaps, since there is a known, ongoing QA problem at Spirit, someone at Renton should be doing those inspections.
That was the policy years ago. Incoming parts and assemblies were subjected to test and inspection. But a decision was made to rely more upon vendors' QA processes, suitably audited by Boeing. In the event the vendor was not "up to the job" and remedies were not forthcoming, it was not out of the question for Boeing to acquire the subcontractor outright and put their own people into management positions. That's part of the reason they ended up with Boeing South Carolina. When their sub on the 787, Vought, ran into difficulties. The same might be in store for Spirit AeroSystems. Only there, some Boeing people might end up with egg on their face, having spun that operation from Boeing about 20 years ago.